Years 1000 to 1150
See also : China Song and Yuan Chinese porcelain Ancient Chinese porcelain Ancient sculpture Musical instrument Islam Buddhism India Tibet and Nepal Egypt Manuscript Autograph Glass and crystal
A Fatimid rock crystal ewer
2008 SOLD 3.1 M£ including premium
The Islamic art reached an extreme opulence before that irreparable cultural disaster that we called the Crusades. Thousand years ago, we were at less than 400 years after the Hegira, and the Fatimid dynasty, having come from North Africa, reigned until Egypt where it founded its capital, Cairo.
The rock crystal ewer found by Christie's comes from that time. Associated Press tells the story of this discovery. In January, a small English auction house proposed a French wine jug of the nineteenth century, estimated one hundred pounds. Fans were excited on the unusual nature of this object, and they spoke quickly into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here there is divergence between AP saying that the object was sold, which Xinhua saying, quoting Christie's, that it was withdrawn "by mutual agreement".
It is a true treasure: it is comforting to know that there are still some of them circulating on the market. The challenge is to detect them. Christie's offers this item for sale in London on October 7, announcing in its press release that it could exceed £ 3 million.
It is one of seven identified copies of Fatimid rock crystal ewers from the Fatimid royal treasure of Cairo. It was carved in a block of flawless rock crystal, and is decorated with cheetahs in chains. The six other copies belong to museums. Each one is decorated with a different animal in relation to the theme of hunting.
The ewer of our article has been gold mounted in the middle of the nineteenth century by a French goldsmith who once worked for Queen Victoria. That may probably explain the January initial error of description.
Such works are fragile. The one that belonged to the Pitti palace was broken in 1998 beyond repair during a fall. The scarcity is created and strengthened by the disappearance of objects. This one is exceptional.
POST SALE COMMENT
The specialists at Christie's were right in their estimates. The ewer was sold £ 3.1 million including expenses.
The rock crystal ewer found by Christie's comes from that time. Associated Press tells the story of this discovery. In January, a small English auction house proposed a French wine jug of the nineteenth century, estimated one hundred pounds. Fans were excited on the unusual nature of this object, and they spoke quickly into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here there is divergence between AP saying that the object was sold, which Xinhua saying, quoting Christie's, that it was withdrawn "by mutual agreement".
It is a true treasure: it is comforting to know that there are still some of them circulating on the market. The challenge is to detect them. Christie's offers this item for sale in London on October 7, announcing in its press release that it could exceed £ 3 million.
It is one of seven identified copies of Fatimid rock crystal ewers from the Fatimid royal treasure of Cairo. It was carved in a block of flawless rock crystal, and is decorated with cheetahs in chains. The six other copies belong to museums. Each one is decorated with a different animal in relation to the theme of hunting.
The ewer of our article has been gold mounted in the middle of the nineteenth century by a French goldsmith who once worked for Queen Victoria. That may probably explain the January initial error of description.
Such works are fragile. The one that belonged to the Pitti palace was broken in 1998 beyond repair during a fall. The scarcity is created and strengthened by the disappearance of objects. This one is exceptional.
POST SALE COMMENT
The specialists at Christie's were right in their estimates. The ewer was sold £ 3.1 million including expenses.
Song - A Visit to Guanyin
2017 SOLD for € 2.47M including premium
The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is a favorite of the faithful in his role of relieving the humans from suffering and of showing the path. He can simultaneously take an unlimited number of appearances to perform the necessary actions for the happiness of the world.
The arrival of Buddhism in China generated important transformations of this bodhisattva who took the name Guanyin. After the Tang Dynasty, Guanyin finally lost his mustache, became an androgynous figure and was revered as a female deity.
To fully exercise her vocation, Guanyin must be accessible. The Chinese located her personal paradise where she could be seen in meditation by the lucky ones. This drift no longer meets the Sanskrit canon but generates another one in which 33 main attitudes are described. The statues of the temples simulate the accessibility of Guanyin in her paradise.
The Shuiyue Guanyin meditation (Guanyin on the reflection of the Moon in Water) is venerated since the transition period between the Tang and Song Dynasties. Guanyin is relaxed and smiling. She sits flexibly on a rock, her body very slightly leaning backwards, one leg bent up and the other resting or hanging. The left hand is placed on the rock and the right forearm on the bent knee.
The sizes of these polychrome wooden statues vary according to the altar for which they are intended. It is difficult to identify their origin between the Song and their rival neighbors Liao and Jin who treated Guanyin's iconography in a similar way. The Nelson Atkins Museum owns a 2.40 m high specimen announced as Liao or Jin, and the British Museum a 1.70 m high specimen announced as Song or Jin.
On December 16 in Paris (Hôtel Drouot), Leclere sells as lot 88 a Shuiyue Guanyin with the hanging leg, 102 cm high, announced as Song. Sharply chiseled and in very good condition, it still has wide traces of polychromy and has never met the xylophages. I guess that it was designed to sit on the edge of a table and has never been integrated on a rock.
The arrival of Buddhism in China generated important transformations of this bodhisattva who took the name Guanyin. After the Tang Dynasty, Guanyin finally lost his mustache, became an androgynous figure and was revered as a female deity.
To fully exercise her vocation, Guanyin must be accessible. The Chinese located her personal paradise where she could be seen in meditation by the lucky ones. This drift no longer meets the Sanskrit canon but generates another one in which 33 main attitudes are described. The statues of the temples simulate the accessibility of Guanyin in her paradise.
The Shuiyue Guanyin meditation (Guanyin on the reflection of the Moon in Water) is venerated since the transition period between the Tang and Song Dynasties. Guanyin is relaxed and smiling. She sits flexibly on a rock, her body very slightly leaning backwards, one leg bent up and the other resting or hanging. The left hand is placed on the rock and the right forearm on the bent knee.
The sizes of these polychrome wooden statues vary according to the altar for which they are intended. It is difficult to identify their origin between the Song and their rival neighbors Liao and Jin who treated Guanyin's iconography in a similar way. The Nelson Atkins Museum owns a 2.40 m high specimen announced as Liao or Jin, and the British Museum a 1.70 m high specimen announced as Song or Jin.
On December 16 in Paris (Hôtel Drouot), Leclere sells as lot 88 a Shuiyue Guanyin with the hanging leg, 102 cm high, announced as Song. Sharply chiseled and in very good condition, it still has wide traces of polychromy and has never met the xylophages. I guess that it was designed to sit on the edge of a table and has never been integrated on a rock.
#Trésoràvendre Une statue de Guanyin, déesse de la compassion, datée de la période Song chez @DamienLeclere
— Connaissancedesarts (@Cdesarts) December 9, 2017
Lire : https://t.co/j3ZbroNg7K pic.twitter.com/Y03vWo5RM6
1080 Calligraphy Letter by Zeng Gong
2016 SOLD for RMB yuan 207M including premium by China Guardian
Post sale press release.
ca 1080 Nine Words for the Palace Administrator
2013 SOLD 8.2 M$ including premium
The Song era was intellectually brilliant and refined. Politically engaged, Su Shi was a universal spirit of that time, altogether writer, traveler, poet, engineer and gourmet.
On September 19 in New York, Sotheby's sells a hanging scroll autographed by Su Shi, 28 x 9.5 cm. In nine words written about 930 years ago, the author identifies himself and bids his farewell to Gong Fu, then administrator of the palace of Duanzhou.
Calligraphy means "beautiful writing". In these early days, the styles are already established since a long time. The beauty of the line is essential, more than the text, to honor the addressee. Su Shi practices with the required virtuosity a writing that combines running and standard styles.
Indeed, each of the nine words is a work of art, but their disposition, here in two columns, is also important because it brings a musicality to the whole message.
Like all outstanding documents from ancient China, the scroll is accompanied by seals and colophons. Its oldest collector's stamp dates from the Ming dynasty. Its earliest colophon, during the reign of Qianlong, is a detailed expert study comparing the biographies of the two men in order to establish the date of the work.
The document is in superb condition despite its age.
POST SALE COMMENT
This ancient example of beautiful writing made by an outstanding man in Chinese history was sold for $ 8.2 million including premium.
In the video below, Sotheby's summarizes with some examples the unique characteristics of the art of Chinese calligraphy for introducing this lot and demonstrating its importance.
On September 19 in New York, Sotheby's sells a hanging scroll autographed by Su Shi, 28 x 9.5 cm. In nine words written about 930 years ago, the author identifies himself and bids his farewell to Gong Fu, then administrator of the palace of Duanzhou.
Calligraphy means "beautiful writing". In these early days, the styles are already established since a long time. The beauty of the line is essential, more than the text, to honor the addressee. Su Shi practices with the required virtuosity a writing that combines running and standard styles.
Indeed, each of the nine words is a work of art, but their disposition, here in two columns, is also important because it brings a musicality to the whole message.
Like all outstanding documents from ancient China, the scroll is accompanied by seals and colophons. Its oldest collector's stamp dates from the Ming dynasty. Its earliest colophon, during the reign of Qianlong, is a detailed expert study comparing the biographies of the two men in order to establish the date of the work.
The document is in superb condition despite its age.
POST SALE COMMENT
This ancient example of beautiful writing made by an outstanding man in Chinese history was sold for $ 8.2 million including premium.
In the video below, Sotheby's summarizes with some examples the unique characteristics of the art of Chinese calligraphy for introducing this lot and demonstrating its importance.
1095 Ancient Chinese Calligraphy
2010 SOLD 436 M RMB yuan including premium
The East Asian calligraphy can be interpreted as a means of linking poetry to graphic art. In fact, it is a form of art by itself, although not available and rarely commented on the Western market. Come directly to Beijing.
Exactly one year ago, Poly sold a fine collection of Qing calligraphy made in very large letters by the emperors themselves in order to spread moral slogans. Such imperial calligraphy is a very ancient tradition as some writings by the second Tang emperor are known.
A scroll of paper from Song period is for sale at Beijing by Poly International Auction on June 3. 37 cm high with a length exceeding 8 meters, it is completely covered with characters drawn in ink by Huang Tingjian, one of the most famous master calligraphers of his time. It is a fine example of his art consisting of semi-cursive letters in an energetic and accentuated style. Depending on location, this text includes from 4 to 15 characters within the height.
This artwork seems being very well maintained despite its age: Huang died 905 years ago. The online catalog does not provide information on the contents of the text. Unlike most lots of this important sale, the estimate is not published.
POST SALE COMMENT
It is a triumph for culture. It was registered in China on a Chinese piece, by a Chinese auction house: 390 million RMB hammer price, RMB 436 million including premium. The buyer has paid the equivalent of U.S. $ 63.8 million.
After this success, I found some additional information on the lot itself.
Completed around 1095 of our calendar, it contains 600 characters of which some examples are presented in the article shared by China Daily. Titled Di Zhu Ming, it is a copy of a Tang poem.
It was originally a little over 8 meters long, and was enlarged to 15 meters by comments. It includes a small portrait of the calligrapher artist.
Exactly one year ago, Poly sold a fine collection of Qing calligraphy made in very large letters by the emperors themselves in order to spread moral slogans. Such imperial calligraphy is a very ancient tradition as some writings by the second Tang emperor are known.
A scroll of paper from Song period is for sale at Beijing by Poly International Auction on June 3. 37 cm high with a length exceeding 8 meters, it is completely covered with characters drawn in ink by Huang Tingjian, one of the most famous master calligraphers of his time. It is a fine example of his art consisting of semi-cursive letters in an energetic and accentuated style. Depending on location, this text includes from 4 to 15 characters within the height.
This artwork seems being very well maintained despite its age: Huang died 905 years ago. The online catalog does not provide information on the contents of the text. Unlike most lots of this important sale, the estimate is not published.
POST SALE COMMENT
It is a triumph for culture. It was registered in China on a Chinese piece, by a Chinese auction house: 390 million RMB hammer price, RMB 436 million including premium. The buyer has paid the equivalent of U.S. $ 63.8 million.
After this success, I found some additional information on the lot itself.
Completed around 1095 of our calendar, it contains 600 characters of which some examples are presented in the article shared by China Daily. Titled Di Zhu Ming, it is a copy of a Tang poem.
It was originally a little over 8 meters long, and was enlarged to 15 meters by comments. It includes a small portrait of the calligrapher artist.
The Exquisite Flower of the Northern Song
2014 SOLD 147 MHK$ including premium
On April 8 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells a basin made in white porcelain at the time of the Northern Song Dynasty 900 years ago or slightly earlier. This piece in excellent condition is estimated HK $ 60M, lot 11 in the catalog. Its glaze is colored in two very close ivory shades.
This large bowl 22 cm in diameter with high walls enters into the category of the Ding, vessels of good purity used for food or medicine. It is however the high end in this category, with some extreme refinements unique of their kind.
Its theme is floral, first of all by its eight lobes of lotus petal shape. Inside, the floral patterns are finely incised under the glaze, barely noticeable in the photos. The central medallion is decorated with a peony and lotus stems adorn the inside walls. The exterior is blank.
The rim of the bowl is colored by a brown copper strip enabled by sparings in the glaze. This nice addition met the fashion of the time but did not please the emperor. It explains the development of the Ru production, monochrome without sparings, in the very last years of the dynasty.
A Ru washer also shaped as a lobed flower, 13.5 cm diameter, masterpiece of the tactile porcelain art of the Song, was sold for HK 208M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2012.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Song porcelain reached an extraordinary refinement. The well deserved price of this basin, HK $ 147M including premium, is all the more remarkable as this piece was perhaps not imperial.
This large bowl 22 cm in diameter with high walls enters into the category of the Ding, vessels of good purity used for food or medicine. It is however the high end in this category, with some extreme refinements unique of their kind.
Its theme is floral, first of all by its eight lobes of lotus petal shape. Inside, the floral patterns are finely incised under the glaze, barely noticeable in the photos. The central medallion is decorated with a peony and lotus stems adorn the inside walls. The exterior is blank.
The rim of the bowl is colored by a brown copper strip enabled by sparings in the glaze. This nice addition met the fashion of the time but did not please the emperor. It explains the development of the Ru production, monochrome without sparings, in the very last years of the dynasty.
A Ru washer also shaped as a lobed flower, 13.5 cm diameter, masterpiece of the tactile porcelain art of the Song, was sold for HK 208M including premium by Sotheby's on April 4, 2012.
POST SALE COMMENT
The Song porcelain reached an extraordinary refinement. The well deserved price of this basin, HK $ 147M including premium, is all the more remarkable as this piece was perhaps not imperial.
Perfection and Diversity of the Ru Ware
2017 SOLD for HK$ 294M including premium
The Ru ware manufactured 900 years ago in present-day Henan province is the most prestigious of all Chinese porcelain for various causes related to the technological development, to the taste of their time and to chance.
By a positioning on tiny studs during cooking without turning the piece upside down, the glaze savings that so displeased at the court of the Northern Song are avoided. The celadon color of which several shades are available equals the refinement of the jade. In the fashion of that time perfect proportions and minimalism are preferred to the complexity of shapes.
Located on what was to become a border zone between north and south, the Ru kilns did not survive the fall of the Northern Song. Their undocumented activity which was perhaps not in the service of the court had only lasted about two decades.
A quarter of a century after the fall of the Northern Song a courtier presents to the Gaozong Emperor of the Southern Song a significant group of Ru ware. The Emperor who was just managing to restore the legendary refinement of his dynasty admires the exceptional quality of these porcelains and especially some pieces whose surface has a texture like ice crackles. This effect modeling the creation of minerals in nature is appreciated as sensational. It was related to the chance of the cooling conditions in the Ru kilns but the Southern Song potters discovered the conditions to be applied to create such a texture at will.
87 pieces of Ru porcelain of the Northern Song are known. Four of them are in private hands.
On April 4, 2012 Sotheby's sold for HK $ 208M including premium over a lower estimate of HK $ 50M a brush washer 13.5 cm in diameter slightly lobed with a smooth texture and a pale color which is close to jade.
On October 3 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells as lot 5 a 13 cm round brush washer This intense blue-green piece has an exceptionally shiny crackled surface. The press release of August 22 announces that it is expected in excess of HK $ 100M. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
By a positioning on tiny studs during cooking without turning the piece upside down, the glaze savings that so displeased at the court of the Northern Song are avoided. The celadon color of which several shades are available equals the refinement of the jade. In the fashion of that time perfect proportions and minimalism are preferred to the complexity of shapes.
Located on what was to become a border zone between north and south, the Ru kilns did not survive the fall of the Northern Song. Their undocumented activity which was perhaps not in the service of the court had only lasted about two decades.
A quarter of a century after the fall of the Northern Song a courtier presents to the Gaozong Emperor of the Southern Song a significant group of Ru ware. The Emperor who was just managing to restore the legendary refinement of his dynasty admires the exceptional quality of these porcelains and especially some pieces whose surface has a texture like ice crackles. This effect modeling the creation of minerals in nature is appreciated as sensational. It was related to the chance of the cooling conditions in the Ru kilns but the Southern Song potters discovered the conditions to be applied to create such a texture at will.
87 pieces of Ru porcelain of the Northern Song are known. Four of them are in private hands.
On April 4, 2012 Sotheby's sold for HK $ 208M including premium over a lower estimate of HK $ 50M a brush washer 13.5 cm in diameter slightly lobed with a smooth texture and a pale color which is close to jade.
On October 3 in Hong Kong, Sotheby's sells as lot 5 a 13 cm round brush washer This intense blue-green piece has an exceptionally shiny crackled surface. The press release of August 22 announces that it is expected in excess of HK $ 100M. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
900-year-old dish to smash US$36 million auction world record for Chinese antiques https://t.co/U56WqVJCQB pic.twitter.com/H7bBHIqiIv
— SCMP News (@SCMP_News) August 24, 2017
The Kilns of the Northern Song
2012 SOLD 208 MHK$ including premium
In the history of mankind, artistic refinement is not a matter of continuous improvement, as one might believe. The chemical secret of the Imperial ceramics of the Northern Song is lost for a long time, and the quality of the smooth and translucent glaze using agate powder will never be equaled.
The best production center was known as the Ru kilns, Ru yao in Chinese. Ru ceramics are very rare because this operation lasted only a few years, 900 years ago during Zhezong and Huizong periods and was stopped by the fall of the dynasty. The site of the Ru yao, lost since the Yuan, was located in 1987 in Henan Province and excavated in 2000.
The classic color of Ru is a very pale blue-green jade imitation. A specimen in very good condition is for sale on April 4 in Hong Kong by Sotheby's. This is a washer of 13.5 cm in diameter that could be used to rinse the brushes after writing. The form is also interesting. The edge is pinched in six locations, simulating the petals of a flower.
This washer was known long before the rediscovery of the site. It is estimated HK $ 60M. It is illustrated on Sotheby's website page announcing the sale.
POST SALE COMMENT
This piece of ceramics had caused great excitement in the weeks preceding the sale. It demonstrates an exceptional technical mastery despite its earliness, probably inimitable since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.
It was sold HK $ 208 million including premium.
The best production center was known as the Ru kilns, Ru yao in Chinese. Ru ceramics are very rare because this operation lasted only a few years, 900 years ago during Zhezong and Huizong periods and was stopped by the fall of the dynasty. The site of the Ru yao, lost since the Yuan, was located in 1987 in Henan Province and excavated in 2000.
The classic color of Ru is a very pale blue-green jade imitation. A specimen in very good condition is for sale on April 4 in Hong Kong by Sotheby's. This is a washer of 13.5 cm in diameter that could be used to rinse the brushes after writing. The form is also interesting. The edge is pinched in six locations, simulating the petals of a flower.
This washer was known long before the rediscovery of the site. It is estimated HK $ 60M. It is illustrated on Sotheby's website page announcing the sale.
POST SALE COMMENT
This piece of ceramics had caused great excitement in the weeks preceding the sale. It demonstrates an exceptional technical mastery despite its earliness, probably inimitable since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.
It was sold HK $ 208 million including premium.
Northern Song - A Black Bowl with Russet Patterns
2018 SOLD for $ 4.2M including premium
The Ding kilns located in Hebei province in northeastern China were producing ceramics since the Tang dynasty. When porcelain begins to compete with jade for imperial use under the Northern Song, Ding is the most important source for these new wares. The bowls are normally stacked upside down during heating, leaving the mouth rim unglazed.
The beautiful creamy white Ding porcelains become commonplace and the court always demands more refinement. The Ding workshops add to their know-how the black porcelain bowls bringing a more pleasant vision of tea froth. The activity of the Ding kilns is not interrupted after the invasion of North China by the Jin in 1125 CE.
Ding potters know how to embellish their black porcelain with colorful effects. On March 22 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 506 a conical bowl 19 cm in diameter made by the Northern Song.
Its glaze is a dense and lustrous black. It is missing on the base and not on the rim, enabling to consider that its manufacture has been especially careful. The potter managed to avoid unpleasant red dots that sometimes appear on pieces from that technique.
Its outside and inner texture is composed of a radiant shower of very fine red-brown or russet splashes that may evoke shooting stars. An almost identical color appears on the mouth rim where the glaze is thinner. The only similar known example is at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. It is less glossy.
This practice of black bowls with colored patterns will be later extended in the Jian kilns of the Southern Song with continuous patterns described as hare fur, tea dust, partridge plumage or oil drops. The manufacturing process has not been retrieved. A Southern Song oil pattern bowl from the same Japanese collection as the piece of the next sale was sold for $ 11.7M including premium by Christie's on September 15, 2016.
The bowl coming for sale had been purchased by its current owner at Christie's in 2002 on the advice of an antique dealer. She evokes the sensational features of this piece in the video shared by The Value.com Ltd.
The beautiful creamy white Ding porcelains become commonplace and the court always demands more refinement. The Ding workshops add to their know-how the black porcelain bowls bringing a more pleasant vision of tea froth. The activity of the Ding kilns is not interrupted after the invasion of North China by the Jin in 1125 CE.
Ding potters know how to embellish their black porcelain with colorful effects. On March 22 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 506 a conical bowl 19 cm in diameter made by the Northern Song.
Its glaze is a dense and lustrous black. It is missing on the base and not on the rim, enabling to consider that its manufacture has been especially careful. The potter managed to avoid unpleasant red dots that sometimes appear on pieces from that technique.
Its outside and inner texture is composed of a radiant shower of very fine red-brown or russet splashes that may evoke shooting stars. An almost identical color appears on the mouth rim where the glaze is thinner. The only similar known example is at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. It is less glossy.
This practice of black bowls with colored patterns will be later extended in the Jian kilns of the Southern Song with continuous patterns described as hare fur, tea dust, partridge plumage or oil drops. The manufacturing process has not been retrieved. A Southern Song oil pattern bowl from the same Japanese collection as the piece of the next sale was sold for $ 11.7M including premium by Christie's on September 15, 2016.
The bowl coming for sale had been purchased by its current owner at Christie's in 2002 on the advice of an antique dealer. She evokes the sensational features of this piece in the video shared by The Value.com Ltd.
The Charming Pala Prince
2017 SOLD for $ 24.7M including premium
The dynasty which reigned through four centuries over Bengal and Bihar is identified as Pala, a suffix meaning "protector" that was added to the personal name of each monarch.
Three religions cohabitated : Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. They shared a same preoccupation of regulating the communication between the divine and the mortal. In Buddhism this function is assured by the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
On March 14 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 233 a statue realized in the later phase of the Pala period around 900 years ago.
The young man sits on a thick lotus, one leg bent and the other hanging. This figure is carved in a black stone similar to a schist which was widely used in the Pala steles and whose hardness enables a great sharpness of sculpture.
He necessarily has all the qualities. The spectacular dynamism of the attitude appeals to dialogue with the faithful. He is a prince elegantly dressed with a profusion of pectoral jewels chiseled in the stone but he also is an ascetic recognizable by his braided hair. His belonging to Buddhism is identified by Amitabha hidden in a fold of the tiara : he is altogether Avalokiteshvara, the all-seeing lord, and Lokanatha, the savior of the world.
The character is life-size in this 148 cm high statue. Such characteristics unusual in Buddhist art suggests that it was the main devotional figure in a temple specially dedicated to Avalokiteshvara.
It was from 1922 an important piece in the collection of Indian art of the Boston Museum before being de-accessionned in 1935 for a trade with another statue of the same culture. The arms and nose were missing. The nose was later rebuilt.
Three religions cohabitated : Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. They shared a same preoccupation of regulating the communication between the divine and the mortal. In Buddhism this function is assured by the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
On March 14 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 233 a statue realized in the later phase of the Pala period around 900 years ago.
The young man sits on a thick lotus, one leg bent and the other hanging. This figure is carved in a black stone similar to a schist which was widely used in the Pala steles and whose hardness enables a great sharpness of sculpture.
He necessarily has all the qualities. The spectacular dynamism of the attitude appeals to dialogue with the faithful. He is a prince elegantly dressed with a profusion of pectoral jewels chiseled in the stone but he also is an ascetic recognizable by his braided hair. His belonging to Buddhism is identified by Amitabha hidden in a fold of the tiara : he is altogether Avalokiteshvara, the all-seeing lord, and Lokanatha, the savior of the world.
The character is life-size in this 148 cm high statue. Such characteristics unusual in Buddhist art suggests that it was the main devotional figure in a temple specially dedicated to Avalokiteshvara.
It was from 1922 an important piece in the collection of Indian art of the Boston Museum before being de-accessionned in 1935 for a trade with another statue of the same culture. The arms and nose were missing. The nose was later rebuilt.
#AsianArtWeek : du 14 au 17 mars @ChristiesInc organise une série de ventes consacrées à l’art d’Asie https://t.co/RTGNrQolil pic.twitter.com/ampK2u6qRS
— Christie's Paris (@christiesparis) March 13, 2017
1120 Guqin (plucked string instrument) for Song emperor Huizong
2010 SOLD 137 M RMB yuan including premium by Poly
Link to post sale article by People's Daily.
Awakening with the Sage
2015 SOLD for $ 4.9M including premium
Asian Buddhist bronzes show figures of deities that express the full range of helpful attitudes for communicating with the faithful: serenity, meditation, intimidation. The portraits of actual personalities are scarce.
The collector Robert Hatfield Ellsworth liked to surround himself with his favorite pieces scattered in his huge apartment in Manhattan. On the headboard of his bedroom, his preferred bronze greeted his awakening every morning. He named it his Yogi.
This statuette 32 cm high is the portrait of a sage seated in the lotus position. The wide open eyes indicate his will to communicate with his visitors and classifies him among the teachers. The smooth forehead without the third eye is confirming that the model was a human.
Several elements including the fleshy body and the dense and curly hair are reminiscent of Padampa Sangye. This important mahasiddha (great Buddhist adept) was born in South India and died 900 years ago after teaching perfection in Tibet for many years.
This bronze is estimated $ 1M for sale without reserves by Christie's in New York on March 17, lot 8. The subtitle of this lot in the catalog originates it in Tibet in the 11th or 12th century of our calendar, considering in fact that this figure is contemporary of the life of the sage or slightly later.
The collector Robert Hatfield Ellsworth liked to surround himself with his favorite pieces scattered in his huge apartment in Manhattan. On the headboard of his bedroom, his preferred bronze greeted his awakening every morning. He named it his Yogi.
This statuette 32 cm high is the portrait of a sage seated in the lotus position. The wide open eyes indicate his will to communicate with his visitors and classifies him among the teachers. The smooth forehead without the third eye is confirming that the model was a human.
Several elements including the fleshy body and the dense and curly hair are reminiscent of Padampa Sangye. This important mahasiddha (great Buddhist adept) was born in South India and died 900 years ago after teaching perfection in Tibet for many years.
This bronze is estimated $ 1M for sale without reserves by Christie's in New York on March 17, lot 8. The subtitle of this lot in the catalog originates it in Tibet in the 11th or 12th century of our calendar, considering in fact that this figure is contemporary of the life of the sage or slightly later.
Five Himalayan masterpieces from the Ellsworth Collection http://t.co/AhFhM0yAb5 #ArtDigest pic.twitter.com/28TWFu2r8l
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 5, 2015
